Ecopsychosocial Aspects of Human–Tiger Conflict: An Ethnographic

Transcription

Ecopsychosocial Aspects of Human–Tiger Conflict:
An Ethnographic Study of Tiger Widows of Sundarban
Delta, India
Arabinda N. Chowdhury1,2, Ranajit Mondal2, Arabinda Brahma2 and Mrinal K. Biswas2
1
Adult Locality Team, Newtown Centre, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridgeshire, UK.
Institute of Psychiatry, Kolkata, India.
2
Abstract
Aims: Human–tiger conflict (HTC) is a serious public health issue in Sundarban Reserve Forest, India. HTC is a continued concern for the significant
mortality and morbidity of both human and tiger population. This is the first comprehensive report on Sundarban tiger–human conflicts and its impact
on widows whose husbands were killed by tigers. The study attempts to explore the situation analysis of HTC and the aftermath of the incident including
bereavement and coping, the cultural stigma related to being killed by a tiger and the consequent discrimination, deprivation, and social rejection, and the
impact on the mental health of the tiger-widows.
Methods: This is a three-phase ethnographic research with a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. In the first phase, a door-to-door village
survey (3,084 households) was carried out in two villages of Sundarban, which are adjacent to the Reserve Forest, in which the incidents of human–animal
conflicts and the 65 tiger-widows identified were documented. In the second phase, the 65 tiger-widows were studied to explore the ecodemography of
tiger attacks and tiger-widows alongside the stigma issue by using a stigma questionnaire (n = 49). The stigma burden was compared with normal widows
(n = 21) and snake-bite widows (n = 18). In the third phase, the psychosocial and cultural dimensions related to tiger attacks were studied by using in-depth
interviews (IDI) of the tiger-widows, focus-group discussions (FGD), and participatory mapping in the community. Clinical examinations of the mental
health of the widows were also carried out in this phase.
Results: The mean age of the 65 widows was 43.49 ± 9.58 years. Of this, 12.3% of the widows had remarried and only 4.6% of the widows were literate. In all, 67.2% of all tiger attacks occurred as a result of illegal forest entry. The main livelihood of the former husbands of the widows were 43.8% wood
cutting, 28.1% fishing, 10.9% crab catching, 9.4% tiger prawn seed (juvenile prawn), and 4.7% honey collection. The maximum number of attacks took
place in the months of December (24.6%) and November (13.9%). The majority of incidences happened during the morning hours (47.7%) of the day. Of
the cases, 86.1% were attacked while the person was engaged in livelihood activity. In all, 57.4% widows are recorded as living “below the poverty line”.
Currently, 45.5% widows earn their living by laboring work followed by forest-based livelihood activities (30%) and begging (5.2%). Tiger-widows differed
significantly (P , 0.001) from both normal and snake-bite widows on all stigma cluster scores and the total score. Of the tiger-widows, 44% were shown to
be suffering from some designated mental illness. IDIs and FGDs helped to unfold the cultural construct of stigma related to tiger-killing. This can be seen
in how the tiger-widows’ quality of life has been negatively impacted in the way their economic and social security, health, remarriage opportunities, and
child upbringing is restricted, along with a multitude of posttrauma psychological scars, deprivation, abuse, and exploitation.
Conclusions: The study highlights the multitude of sufferings experienced by the tiger-widows including the issues of the gender aspect of HTC and
the ecopsychiatric risk factors of tiger attacks combined with the background of local sociocultural beliefs and practices. It is well known that a similar problem also exists in Bangladesh Sundarban as well, in which case it may be that a strong and practical administrative strategy for sustainable alternative income
generation and a balanced conservation policy with integrated participatory forest management may go to save both human and tiger. A community ecocultural mental health program involving all the stakeholders (community, gram panchayat, and forest department) and aiming to address and even eradicate
the cultural stigma of tiger attack may help to reduce the stigma burden and socicultural discrimination currently experienced by the tiger-widows.
Keywords: tiger-widows, stigma of tiger attack, human–tiger conflict, gender and human–animal conflict, Sundarban, conservation, ethnography, ecopsychiatry
CiTATion: Chowdhury et al. Ecopsychosocial Aspects of Human–Tiger Conflict: An
Ethnographic study of tiger Widows of sundarban Delta, india. Environmental Health
Insights 2016:10 1–29 doi: 10.4137/EHi.s24899.
TYPE: Original Research
Received: February 12, 2015. ReSubmitted: July 30, 2015. Accepted for
publication: August 01, 2015.
Academic editor: Timothy Kelley, Editor in Chief
Peer Review: Five peer reviewers contributed to the peer review report. Reviewers’
reports totaled 2065 words, excluding any confidential comments to the academic editor.
Funding: World Bank through State Health System Development Project, Department
of Health and Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal funded this study. The
authors confirm that the funder had no influence over the study design, content of the
article, or selection of this journal.
Correspondence: arabindachowdhury985@gmail.com
Copyright: © the authors, publisher and licensee Libertas Academica Limited. This is
an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC
3.0 License.
aper subject to independent expert blind peer review. All editorial decisions made
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requirements, including the accuracy of author and contributor information, disclosure of
competing interests and funding sources, compliance with ethical requirements relating
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Published by Libertas Academica. Learn more about this journal.
Competing Interests: Authors disclose no potential conflicts of interest.
Introduction
Human–wildlife conflict (HWC) is a serious global problem
which is causing severe harm. Alongside the loss of human
life and property, there is also the very real threat to the survival of many endangered species.1 HWCs these days are also
recognized as a worldwide conservation problem as well.2
Distefano3 has provided us a set of contributory factors for
increasing HWC worldwide, such as human population
growth and subsequent encroachment into wildlife habitats, the changing pattern of land use, species habitat loss,
EnvironmEntal HEaltH insigHts 2016:10
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Chowdhury et al
ecotourism, increasing livestock populations, abundance of
wild prey, increasing wildlife population as a result of conservation programs, as well as the impact of climate change.
In India, as elsewhere, HWC is also posing a serious
challenge and is reported across the country in a variety of
forms, such as the monkey menace in urban areas, crop raiding by ungulates and wild pigs, depredation by elephants, and
cattle and human killing by tigers and leopards in rural areas.
There is also damage to agricultural crops and property. However, the killing of livestock and human beings is some of the
worst forms of recorded human–animal conflict.4 Human–
elephant conflict is a growing problem in North East India,5
and it is reported that between 1980 and 2003, more than
1,150 humans and 370 elephants died as a result.6 The level of
HWC in northeast India is becoming a huge conservational
challenge as the incidences of conflicts between mega-vertebrates (elephants, tigers, rhinos, and buffalos) and humans are
increasing largely because of the increase in human activity
at and around the buffer zone areas of the reserve forests.7
The high density of population pockets in the close vicinity
of reserve forests is proving to be a key factor for HWC,8 and
this has been borne out by the reporting in India that 69% of
the reserves have an adjoining population of more than three
million people who are engaged in agriculture, livestock grazing, and forest product collection.9
The incidence of human–tiger conflicts (HTCs) is equally
alarming in India. A total of 822 cases of human casualties were
reported during the period of 1990–2009 from the following
six states of India as: Rajasthan, 7; Orissa, 25; Uttarakhand, 51;
Madhya Pradesh, 133; Uttar Pradesh, 161; and West Bengal,
445. Of these attacks, male casualties were far higher (79.8%)
than female casualties (20.2%).10 In the Gangetic delta of
India, the Sundarban mangrove forest (shared both by India
and Bangladesh) is well known for HTC over many decades.11
It is reported that in Bangladesh Sundarban, a total of 401 people (about 24 people per year) were killed by the tigers, whereas
41 tigers (about three tigers per year) were killed by humans
during 1984–2000.12 The nature and main causes of HTC in
Sundarban is somewhat different to that usually seen in HWC,
namely, in most of the cases, this is not due to tiger raiding but
conversely humans raiding into the tiger habitat, ie, the overlapping of tiger and human spaces.
To the local resident, the tiger and Sundarban are almost
synonymous,13 and this landscape has a long sociopolitical
history of HTCs.14 Tiger attacks in the communities around
the Sundarban Reserve Forest (SRF) and also during forest
exploration are a constant threat.15 A significant proportion
of population from the villages of Sundarban depends on the
resources found in the forest, and it is during their livelihood
activities while in the forest that they can become the victim of
tiger attacks. Human–animal conflicts, especially tiger–human
encounters, are a regular event in Sundarban, and every year,
about 40 people are attacked by tigers.16 Most of the forest goers
are landless poor people, the husband being the only breadwinner
2
of the family and should he suffer an untimely death, the
widow is then thrown into deep poverty and hardship. In a
society where widows are already stigmatized and as a result of
this have low social security and status, the tiger-killings have
added further suffering to widows, and this is because of the
local strong cultural stigma relating to such deaths. Currently,
there are about 3,000 such widows in Sundarban.17 The present
paper attempts to highlight some of the damaging impact of
HTC in the Indian Sundarban, in the context of local cultural
landscape, namely, the hidden and human dimension of HTCs.
Hidden impacts of HTC mainly include the impact on the survivors in terms of health, both physical and psychosocial, disruption of livelihoods and food insecurity, and opportunity and
transaction costs of conflict.18 Human dimensions involve peoples’ values, beliefs, attitudes, social norms, and behavior related
to wildlife relationships including conflicts, controversies, and
conservation.19 This is the first comprehensive psychosocial
report on these widows, who are locally named as Bag-Bidhoba
(tiger-widow), in two Mouzas (1) adjacent to Sundarban Tiger
Reserve (STR), India.
The Land and the People
Sundarban bioreserve. Sundarban is the world’s largest prograding delta at the mouth of three great rivers, the
Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna, which converge at the
basin of the Bay of Bengal. It covers an area of 10,284 km 2, of
which 41.5% is in India and 58.5% in Bangladesh (Fig. 1). The
forest extends over 200 islands, separated by 15 major rivers
and 400 interconnected network of tidal waterways that support the largest tidal mangrove forest in the world. The name
Sundarban (Beautiful Forest) is derived from the mangrove
tree Heritiera fomes, which has spectacular yellow-orange
flowers, and is locally called Sundari.
The Indian Sundarban (Fig. 2) lies between 21°31’ to
22°53’N and 88°37 to 89°09’E and comprises 19 community
development blocks – 13 under South 24 Parganas and 6 under
North 24 Parganas district (covering 190 Gram Panchayats
[GPs] in 1,064 villages with a total area of 9,630 km 2) of West
Bengal state. The Sundarban bioreserve is one of the most
important biodiversity (both aquatic and terrestrial) treasures
of the world with approximately 84 different mangroves and
mangrove-associated vegetation as well as over 1,500 species
of fauna.20 It is the largest tidal halophytic mangrove reserve
in the world, and UNESCO declared Sundarban National
Park a World Heritage site in 1987 (Bangladesh Sundarban in
1997). In 1989 it was further designated as a Biosphere Reserve
under the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme. The
Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, which covers 9,630 km 2 and
includes 5,400 km 2 of nonforest area, covers the delta south
to the Dampier-Hodges line and includes the SRF, Tiger
Reserve, and human settlements.
Sundarban tiger reserve. Established in 1973, it covers
an area of 2,584.89 km 2 (forest cover 1,680 km 2 and water
cover 905 km 2) and is located a little south of the Tropic of
Tiger-widows of Sundarban
Figure 1. The combined Sundarban.
Cancer between 21°32’–22°40’ N and 88°05’–88°10’ E. It has
three designated zones: core or wilderness zone: 1,330.12 km 2;
primitive zone (inside core): 124.40 km 2; subsidiary wilderness zone: 241.07 km 2, and buffer zone (1,255 km 2) (Fig. 3).
The area supports the subcontinent’s largest population of the
critically endangered species of Royal Bengal Tigers (Panthera tigris tigris), which are well known for their reputation
as man-eaters and are also well known for their long-distance
swimming and extraordinary migrating behavior from island
to island (even between India and Bangladesh), expert climbing, and ecoadaptive behaviors with dynamic intertidal habitat
change (amphibious life).21 A recent camera trap count shows
the number of tigers in the region at 103, ie, 20 tiger per every
20 km 2 of the STR.22 The north-west side of the STR is surrounded by many villages (0.22 million people are living in
66 mouzas within only 2 km of the Tiger Reserve buffer zone),
thus making the reserve ever more vulnerable to ever increasing biotic interference in the form of livelihood forest explorations, illegal fishing, timber smuggling, and poaching. 23
The official record shows that on average 10–15 people
are annually killed by tigers in the STR.24 In Bangladesh Sundarban, there are generally thought to be anywhere between
335 and 500 tigers (2004 count and annual monitoring since
2007), 25 and on average, about 80 people are killed annually
by tigers.26 Straying of tigers into the close vicinity of fringe
villages is also raising the potential for HTCs27 and indeed
is now becoming quite frequent in both the Sundarbans. In
Indian Sundarban, the annual mean frequency of tiger straying is 15.8 during the period 2002–2009. 24 In Bangladesh,
between July 2008 and 2010, tigers visited human habitats
123 times, of those, five died from retaliatory killing, while 51
people and 36 livestock were killed by the tigers. 28
Study block. Gosaba block (Fig. 4) is at the extreme
eastern corner of the Sundarban region close to the international border with Bangladesh. It is the last inhabited island
before reaching the deep Sundarban forest. It is located at
22°16’ N 88°80’ E and has an average elevation of 13 feet
from the sea level. It has 14 GPs, democratically elected local
self-government units, of which 8 GPs are facing the STR
buffer zone (and partly the Core area). They are separated by
the Gomdi, Gomor, Sajina, and Melmel rivers. The 2001 census showed that it has a population of 222,764 (male 113,827
and female 108,937). Gosaba is the most poor and underdeveloped block in Sundarban and has a significant proportion
of its population living out an existence on forest resources.
People and livelihoods. Sundarban is one of the poorest and highest population density regions of South Asia,
with an estimated 8 million people (India and Bangladesh
combined) dependent on its fragile ecosystem. The population
of Sundarban is heterogeneous, with a high influx of immigration from other parts of India and Bangladesh. This unprecedented population growth in the region (from 1.16 million
in 1951 to 3.76 million in 2001) has not only reduced the
amount per capita of cultivable land but has also created both
overcrowding and high rates of unemployment. In addition to
the challenges facing the people of this region and the subdivision and fragmentation of landholding either through
property division or climatic destruction (land erosion), the
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Chowdhury et al
Figure 2. Indian Sundarban (not to scale).
landed households have gradually turned marginal and were
no longer able to be sustained through agriculture alone. In
fact, the agricultural land area, measured in 2009, had shrunk
from 2,149.615 km 2 in 2002 to 1,691 km 2, a loss of 246 km 2.
As a consequence of this, fishing and other forest-based living
have become the occupation for these islanders.
The people of Sundarban live in an ecologically vulnerable
environment. The area is prone to cyclones, and often supercyclones will occur.29 It is monsoonal and low-lying with many
human settlements located alongside the waterways and coastline. The man-made river embankment (3,500 km) serves both
as a flood defense wall and also to protect the agricultural land
4
and human settlements from diurnal tidal surges. The mean
tidal amplitude of Sundarban region is between 5.22 mm and
3.14 mm/year, which is much higher than the national average of 1.06–1.75 mm/year.30 The embankment built to hold
these tides back often ruptures and pushes saline water on to
the agricultural land. This causes serious damage to crops,
property, and the lives of inhabitants, often leading to internal
displacement, social vulnerabilities, and livelihood crisis.31
Hindus are the predominant religious group in the region,
followed by Muslims, and 36.5% of the population belongs to
a scheduled caste and tribe. Seventy-eight percent of the economy and 65% of workers are dependent on agriculture (mainly
Figure 3. STR with study mouzas (1, 2).
rain-fed mono-cropping). Of the workers, 50% are landless
agricultural laborers and marginal farmers. This high percentage of landless agricultural laborers substantiates the level of
poverty in the region. It has exerted a negative impact on the
economy of the fringe population as well. More than half of
the workers (52.3%) in agriculture and fishing are daily-wage
laborers. Agriculture is hard and risky work with low cropping
intensity because of the high salinity to be found in the soil,
irrigation constraints (only 12% cultivable land is irrigated),
frequent seasonal variations, and climatic incidents resulting
in crop failure.32,33 During the agricultural lean season, more
people resort to forest-based livelihood activities (fishing and
collection of prawn seeds and honey) and subsequently risking
their lives to man-eating tigers, crocodiles, and sharks. Low
prey-density and physical disability also encourages tigers to
stray into the fringe villages (Fig. 5), which precipitates both
livestock killing and HTC (2). During the years 2004–2006,
the villages that evidenced tiger straying (more than once) is
marked in Figure 2 (no. 3–7).
Sundarban then is a severely underdeveloped region with
a very poor quality of life for its inhabitants.34 Forty percent of
the population of South 24 Parganas district lives within the
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Chowdhury et al
Figure 4. Gosaba Block with study mouzas – Satjelia and Lahiripur.
boundary of the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve. Population
density has increased from 934 per km 2 in 2001 to 1,082 per
km 2 in 2011. The population of Sundarban, especially those
of the island blocks around forests (Gosaba, Basanti, Kultoli,
Patharpratima, and Namkhana), are also, when considered
against the Human Development Index, the most backward
in terms of most of the components of the Index (0.55 in contrast to 0.62 of the district). The stark underdevelopment of
Sundarban is also further reflected in the facts that 44% of
the population is living below the poverty line (BPL) (3) and
87% of the people suffer food insecurity, 60% households have
no access to safe drinking water, 70% of the families live in
thatched mud houses, and 47.6% household have no land.35
The level of literacy (77.1% state, .35% in Sundarban) and per
capita income of the Sundarban resident is accordingly much
6
below the state average. Rural Household Survey conducted
in 2005 showed that in South 24 Parganas district more than
400,000 households are BPL and thus making the poverty
ratio (% of household) to 34.11%, which is far above the
state as well as national poverty ratio. In all the 13 blocks of
Sundarban, the poverty ratio is above 30% and that for Gosaba is 38.03%.36 The infrastructural facilities are extremely
poor, there is no industry, the communication and transport
networks are very poor, and electricity is almost nonexistent
in this region (only 17% households have grid connectivity).
Health care is poor and inadequate, 37 and nearly 33% of the
population do not even have access to primary health care.
For all these reasons outlined above, the dependence
therefore of the fringe population in Sundarban on ecoresources is high. Of the 4.1 million people live in Sundarban38
Figure 5. Participatory mapping of ecostress in Dayapur-Lahiripur area, Gosaba.
(3.5 million in Bangladesh), 32% depend on the resources of
Sundarban mangrove forest directly or indirectly. The main
forest-based livelihood groups are described below.
Fisher folk. Micro-fishing (catching fishes in creeks and
rivers) and macro-fishing (in the sea) are the main livelihood activities for communities living in the fringe area of
the forest and also along the coastal line, respectively. They
are locally called Jele (fisherman). A total of 478,770 people
fish in the Sundarban including in the adjacent Bay of Bengal,
of which 144,171 people are active fishers living in 282 fishing villages. The total catch from the Sundarban is estimated
to be at 276,000 tons per year.39 Around 2,069 km 2 of the
water tracks inside the Reserve Forest are used for river fishing, using traditional methods. Motorized fishing boats are
prohibited within the STR.40 Fishing is always accompanied
by occupational dangers, either from tiger or crocodile attack
or from climatic events.41
Wood cutters and firewood (Golpatta – Nipa fruticans and
Hental – Phoenix paludosa) collectors. Locally they are called
Kathuria and Kathkurani, respectively. The annual average timber collection from SRF is about 120,000 quintals. Officially,
approximately 5% of the population is involved in wood collection; usually a team of 6–10 wood cutters are lead by a Boulay into
the forest. A Boulay is a man with traditional expertise, one who
knows the art of keeping the team out of danger in the forest;
they are also believed to have supernatural powers to protect the
work area so that tiger cannot enter into this enchanted territory.
By their chants, they are said to control a tiger’s movement and
force them to remain confined within a fixed circular space or to
shut their jaws by uttering their magic spells (mantra).
Honey collectors. (from the beehives of Apis indica). This is a
seasonal group activity. Usually a team of 8–10 members is lead
by a Moulay (also called Moule or Mouli) into the forest. Moulays
are those indigenous people known for their traditional wisdom
and expertise. They are also especially skilled persons in identifying good beehives (by observing the flying directions of bees) in
the dense forest, and they are skilled in beehive cutting and the
honey collection technique. As with the Boulay, the Moulay is also
believed to possess supernatural powers to prevent tiger attacks by
their rituals and chants.42 Honey collection is highly dangerous
as it takes place directly in the tiger habitat (Fig. 6). About 3% of
the population is involved in this activity, and on an average, 200
quintals of honey and 1,000 kg of wax are collected annually.43
Because of the high risk to life from tiger attacks, snake bites, and
climatic hazards, recently many of the Moulays have been moving
away from their traditional practice and are now moving on to
other livelihood options.44 Both Boulays and Moulays are magicoreligious people in the same traditional manner of a forest Shaman or Fakir.45 They are seen as guardians during any forest trip
and are highly respected in the community.
Crab collectors. The estuarine mud crab Scylla serrata (locally
called bada-kanckara – mangrove crab) is an edible species distributed across the mudflats of the Sundarban forest and has a good
market demand, both locally and internationally.46 Consequently,
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Chowdhury et al
Figure 6. A Moulay of Pakhiralaya village, who survived a tiger attack in
the SRF, showing the mark of the attacks.
there are many crab fisheries in and around Sundarban and they
are running a lucrative trade.47 The crab collectors are often taken
by tigers when they are concentrating on their catch.48
Shell collectors. Locally they are called Chunari. Snails,
clams, and giant oysters are distributed around the forest floor
and mud flats. These mollusks are also of ecological importance
to the mangrove in converting leaf litter into detritus. Their
shells are used by people for preparing lime, shrimp, and
chicken feed. Both live and dead shells collected.
Tiger prawn seed collectors. This mainly involves women
and children who are locally called meen-dhara (juvenile-prawn
catcher). One survey49 of 3,252 tiger prawn seed (TPS) collectors
in 1,917 households among 11 Sundarban villages showed that
74% of collectors were female while 26% were male. They collect prawn seeds from brackish water for a lucrative on-the-spot
earning of about Rs. 50–100 (USD $ 1–2) per day per person.
Shrimp exports alone constitute 75% of the total marine products to foreign markets from West Bengal, and the collection of
juvenile prawns has become a major income source with estimates
8
of up to 200,000 collectors involved within the Sundarban. It is
now estimated that 1,500–3,000 million prawn seeds are collected
annually,39 feeding a large demand for prawn seeds from the
neighboring shrimp aquaculture industry. The extensive TPS collection for the corporate business network has created an ecological disaster in the region and has resulted in the severe depletion of
local shrimp and other fish populations.50 With the seed collectors
continually working in waist-deep water, they are prone to shark
(Indian dog shark, Scoliodon laticaudus, locally called Kamote) and
crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) attacks. TPS collection near or inside
the SRF also always carries a high risk of tiger attack.
The STR issues over 3,700 Boat License Certificates and
seasonal passes to individuals, allowing them entry into the forest for a permitted activity in a designated area. Illegal trips into
the forest are locally called as Black trips. Locally, the islanders
will also refer to all animal attacks as an accident. On average,
over 10,000 villagers will enter the STR each year clandestinely
for their living. Their deaths go unreported because any forest
entry without permission is a criminal offense and subject to
penalty and legal proceedings. On a legal trip, if death results
from a tiger attack (outside the core area), the family is supposed to receive some compensation from the Forest Department. There is, however, no compensation for crocodile or shark
attacks and snake bites. There are some local agencies ( Janata)
who will offer life insurance policies on the deposit of some
regular monies. However, the entire claiming procedure is very
complicated and often corrupt, and in most instances, the claim
remains unmet or the family is cheated of their claim.
Bonobibi and the Tiger God. The people of Sundarban,
both Hindus and Muslims together, have a strong faith in the
folk cult of Bonobibi (the Queen of the forest), as the guardian
deity of the forest together with the Tiger God under the name
Dakkhin Ray (Lord of the South). The iconography of Bonobibi
differs as to the faith of the followers: The Hindu idol is wearing
shari, a crown, and garland, carrying a club and trishul, with a
baby and riding a tiger (Fig. 7). Sundraban islanders perceive
Bonobibi as the unified symbol of the forest and the people, and
she stands beyond any caste, class, and religion.51 In each Sundarban village, there is a sacred Bonobibi shrine or Than, and at
different entrance points to the SRF, there are idols of Bonobibi
to be found. The Bonobibi Puja is a big social festival throughout
Sundarban and is celebrated in December every year.
Before entering the forest for fishing, harvesting honey,
or wood cutting, it is obligatory to offer puja and pray to the
Deity asking to keep them protected from tigers. Invocation
of the Tiger God is also a mandatory ritual for safe passage
throughout the Sundarban forest territory. His idol shows him
as a young man kneeling down on the tiger, his mount. While
inside the forest people will never utter the word Tiger, but
to show reverence, they will refer to them as Bara Miah (Big
Uncle), Boro-Babu (Big Mister), or Boro-Thakur (Big Lord).
It is believed that Boulays and Moulays possess their supernatural powers of protection because they have been blessed
with the divine power of Bonobibi and Dakkhin Ray.
Figure 7. Bonobibi idol at Gosaba village.
Manasa. She is a four-armed icon ornamented with
snakes. Manasa is the cult Hindu folk Goddess of snakes and
protector from snake bites, and in almost every home in Sundarban, there can be found a sacred altar with a Manasa shrub
(a Sij plant of a cactus family Euphorbia genus). The health burden (both mortality and morbidity) caused by snake bites, both
poisonous and nonpoisonous, is high in Sundarban. However,
snake bite is seen as an occupational hazard mostly by honey
collectors, and women who are engaged in TPS collection in
the rivers, streams, and estuaries are especially prone to snake
bites.36 People will usually seek traditional treatments from the
indigenous magico-religious healers, such as the Sarpa-Baidya
(snake-bite healers), Ojha and Gunin, which are to be found
throughout the Sundarban region. The people of Sundarban
have deep faith both in these folk deities to keep them safe
and order their lives, and this is reflected in their day-to-day
cultural rituals and social discourses.52
Materials and Methods
Study area. The study was carried out in three hamlets
(Kathuriapara, Jalepare, and Bidhabapara) in Satjelia and in
two hamlets (Bidhan colony, Jamespur) in the Lahiripur mouza
of Gosaba block. Both the villages are situated on the Melmel
riverbank opposite to the core area of SRF (Fig. 8).
Study design. Primarily an ethnographic method was
followed in this study. Ethnography is an anthropological
research method that aims to understand people within their
social and cultural contexts.53 It attempts to study the cultural
system in terms of local context, processes, and meaning of
events and experiences within the cultural system. It involves
both emic and etic perspectives of a cultural phenomena.54
Ethnography is a collection of qualitative research methods
that focus on the close observation of social practices and by
individual or group interactions help to develop an insight how
and why a social process occurs and influence others.55
A mix of both quantitative and qualitative methods were
used in this research, and the primary aim of the study was
to explore comprehensively the nature and extent and impact
of human–animal conflicts in the Sundarban village’s proximity to the SRF. Two villages (Satjelia and Lahiripur) were
selected, and in five hamlets, a door-to-door survey of 3,084
households was carried out, along with focus group discussions (FGDs), participatory mapping, and in-depth interviews
(IDI) of index cases (65 widows); the data on human–animal
9
Chowdhury et al
Figure 8. Study mouzas and hamlets.
conflicts have been reported earlier.56 The secondary part consisted of an in-depth study of the particular stigma suffered by
49 widows (those who were willing to be interviewed), whose
husbands had been killed by tigers (32 were from Satjelia and
17 from Lahiripur) and had been identified in the previous survey, which was primarily a quantitative study done by using
a Stigma questionnaire. Clinical examinations of the mental
health problems suffered by 54 widows (those who were willing to be examined) were also carried out. Concurrently, in
the third part, an ethnographic study was conducted on these
54 widows. This was to complement the information already
received in parts one and two, but also to highlight the related
stigma and local psychosocial issues in relation to the tiger killings. The number of widows studied varies in different steps
as some of them declined to be interviewed or examined. This
study was conducted in the period 2005–2007. The study protocol was approved by the Ethical Committee of State Health
System Development Project, Department of Health and
Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal. This research
complied with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
In-depth interviews. An ethnographic case study approach
was adopted for these interviews. The research team stayed
10
within the community and attempted to blend in with the target
population. In this way, it was possible to gain local sociocultural insights from the community through both participation
and observation and to note the key informant’s guidance and to
explore local tacit knowledge. The interviews were detailed and
lengthy and were conducted over several sessions in 2–3 days. The
purpose of the interview and any confidentiality matters were
explained to all the widows. All the widows to be interviewed
gave written consent (by thumb impression) for the interviews
to be recorded and transcribed at a later point. Several long sessions (2–3 hours) of IDI with the widows at their cottages, or in
the community was done, in which the focus was on the details
of the tiger attack incident and its aftermath including the
grief and bereavement process, any resulting stigma and social
discrimination issues, and the state of their current health and
livelihood assets. They were all encouraged to give a spontaneous and detailed account of their stigma-related life events and
all were very cordial and open-minded. They documented the
community’s discrimination and their experiences frankly and in
a heart-touching way. The assessment of their current economic
status was done by using a three-point scale: (1) monthly income
below Rs. 300 (US$ 6); (2) between Rs. 301–500 (US$ 7–10),
and (3) Rs. 501–1,000 and above (US$ 11–20+). Six IDI were
also recorded by willing Boulays and Moulays (three each) and
another two IDI from the Sarpa-Baidyas.
Focus group discussion. Two FGDs with tiger-widows
(groups of 10) were held, and two more were held with villagers (mixed groups of 10 people: wood cutter, TPS collector,
honey and crab collector, apiary keeper, Boulay, Sarpa-Baidya,
fisherman, primary School teacher. and Panchayat member).
One each in Satjelia and Lahiripur was conducted to frame
the Stigma questionnaire and to gain practical insight into the
problem of HTC in the area, as well as the community attitudes toward tiger attacks, and also included some participatory mapping. The selection of the FGD participants was done
on the basis of suggestions from the key informant and also
their willingness and agreement to signing (or thumb impression on) the consent form. The FGDs were tape-recorded and
then later transcribed.
Stigma measurement. There is no reference to stigma
assessment related to animal attacks in any of the literature.
The conceptual framework for devising the Stigma Scale in this
study, therefore, was taken from the model of HIV Stigma,
Scale of Berger et al.57 and used the related dimensions from the
recent stigma literature,58–60 the detailed findings of which were
reported elsewhere (under publication). After repeated discussions about the issues related to each item in the four FGDs, these
were then framed according to the local situational and cultural
context. The final scale, in the vernacular thus was made up of
28 items distributed in six clusters. Responses were elicited in
a four-point Likert scale from Disagree (0) to Strongly Agree (3).
The stigma score ranged from 0 to 84 with higher scores indicating greater stigma. In order to be able to draw a comparison,
two groups of widows were taken as follows: 32 normal widows, whose husbands has died either normally or from physical
diseases and were identified from Satjelia, Lahiripur, Dayapur,
Sadhupur, and Gosaba Panchayat area (Fig. 2), 21 of them consented to be interviewed on stigma-related issues. Twenty-four
widows whose husbands had died from snake bites in the same
villages were identified, and 18 of them consented to be interviewed. An effort was made to keep a similar age range of the
comparison groups with that of the index group.
Participatory mapping. It is an important tool in qualitative research and is a useful method of communication.
Theme-based maps help to depict local knowledge and information concerning a local problem. It helps to explore community perception and their experience of their environment
and also enhances stakeholder involvement in the research
process.61 In this study, 20 participatory maps were drawn on
different issues; for example, the known spots of tiger entry
on the river bank and different ecological stresses (Fig. 5), the
straying tiger attack (Fig. 12), the location of the Sarpa-Baidya/
Ojha, and the widow hamlets in the village (Figs. 5, 11). All
these map narratives provided a rich and useful vein of information about the community’s perception of HTC set in the
context of their local ecocultural landscape of Sundarban,
which helped to develop an emic insight about the ecopsychiatric relation between the people and their environment.
Mental health assessment. A mental health assessment of
the widows was an integral part of this research protocol, and
a detailed mental state examination was carried out for each
consenting widow and, based on their psychological distress and
specific mental symptoms, a psychiatric diagnosis as per Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) guideline62 was given
where applicable. This was performed jointly by a professor and
consultant psychiatrist (ANC) together with a senior psychiatry
postgraduate trainee (AB).
Ethical approval. The study protocol was approved by
the Ethical Committee of Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal, and Gosaba Block
Panchayat Samity (1).
Results
Ecodemography of tiger attacks and tiger-widows: Age.
Ages noted here are the best approximations as given by the
widows and their relatives or neighbors. The mean age of the
65 widows was 43.49 ± 9.58 years.
Remarriage. Eight widows (12.3%) had remarried. The
mean age was 34.25 ± 7.70 years, and the mean time interval
of remarriage was 3.75 ± 2.12 years.
Literacy. All were illiterate, except for 3 (4.6%) who could
read, write, and sign their own name.
Forest entry. Out of 64 incidents (one was a house attack),
43 (67.2%) had illegally entered the forest (Black trips) and
only 21 (32.8%) of these incidents had occurred on legal trips
(had relevant Forest Department Registration pass).
Livelihood activity. The husbands of the 64 widows had
died while following their livelihood activities as follows:
wood cutting 28 (43.8%), fishing 18 (28.1%), crab collection
7 (10.9%), TPS collection 6 (9.4%), honey collection 3 (4.7%),
and fuel wood collection 2 (3.12%).
Tiger attack Months. The maximum number of attacks 16
(24.6%) took place in the month of December, this was followed by 9 (13.9%) in November, 8 (12.3%) in April, 7 (10.8%)
in January, 7 (10.8%) again in March, 5 (7.7%) in October, 4
(6.1%) in September, 3 (4.6%) in May, 2 (3.1%) in June, 2 (3.1%)
in August, and 1 (1.5%) each in July and February.
Attack time (65 cases). 31 (47.7%) occurred during the
morning (up to midday), 24 (36.9%) occurred during noon and
the afternoon (12–4 pm), and 10 (15.4%) in the evening and
during the night (5–10 pm).
Activity during attack. Of the 65 victims, the larger
majority, 56 (86.1%), were attacked by a tiger while they were
engaged in their livelihood activity. Of the victims, 4 (6.2%)
were attacked during their sleep, the remaining 5 (7.7%) people were each on different activities at the time; eg, running
after seeing a tiger, while resting after honey collection, washing after dinner at home, or while micturating on the river
bank and then coming suddenly face to face with a tiger attack
while walking in the forest.
11
Chowdhury et al
Attack. It is known from the study of tiger’s attacking
behavior in Sundarban that they mostly attack from behind
a person and attempt to bite the neck in the first instance,63
and it is no different in this study. From the 65 cases, the
attack had come from behind in 58 (89.2%) of the cases.
Three victims (4.6%) were attacked from the side, two (3.1%)
had been attacked face to face. Very atypical ways of attack
were also noted, namely, an attack on the hand (1.5%) and
an attack on left thigh (1.5%), which were recorded by two
individuals only. An estimate derived from the narratives collected indicates that at least 4 (6.2%) tigers were also injured
during combat.
Retrieval of victims. The victims’ bodies were missing in
41 (63.1%) incidents. Only 24 (36.9%) bodies were recovered;
of those, 6 (25%) mauled bodies had been snatched from tigers
and 18 (75%) of the bodies were recovered from the jungle
only after the tiger had left (within an average distance of
3–8 km from the spot). Only a very small number, 9 (13.8%),
of the bodies recovered were available to the family members
at home. Of the 24 bodies that had been recovered, 14 were
brought to and left outside the home: 10 had been buried (7 in
the jungle and 3 on the river bank), 3 were cremated (2 in the
jungle and 1 on the river bank), and 1 was floated on the river.
Of the nine bodies taken home, six were cremated and three
were buried.
Compensation. Of the 64 recorded incidents, 21 people
(32.8%) had been attacked and killed on a legal trip, of which
only 7 (33.3%) of the victims’ family received any compensation from the Forest Department (this ranged from Rs. 2,000
to 7,000 including in one case where only some clothing had
been received, but no money). From the Janata (insurance
agencies), of 61 potentially eligible claimants (of which one
incident had happened at home, one had not renewed his/her
insurance with their Janata, and in two cases there had been
no Janata service available to them at that time), 17 (27.9%)
had bought private insurance through Janata, and of these,
only 6 widows (35.3%) received any payment (which ranged
from Rs. 10,000 to 25,000). In 3 (17.6%) cases, the monies due
to the victims’ families were forfeited or they had been cheated
out of it by others.
Residence change. Four widows (6.1%) had moved after the
incident to another village or district.
Current economic condition. Among 54 widows, 31 (57.4%)
of them were extremely poor and living well below the poverty line. In all, 23 (42.6%) widows were just above the BPL.
A total of 58 (89.2%) widows had no land, and only 7 (10.8%)
widows had a very small amount of land (4 ± 1.53 Bighas; 1
Bigha = 1,600 square yards).
Current occupation. Among 57 widows (Table 1), 17 (30%)
are engaged in some forest-based livelihood activities, 26
(45.5%) are engaged in various labor-based jobs, 11 (19.3%)
are not working (being looked after by their sons and daughters or other relatives), and 3 (5.2%) have to earn their living
by begging.
Stigma assessment. Results from a one-way analysis
of variance indicated significant differences in stigma scores
between different widow groups (Table 2). Tukey’s post hoc
comparisons indicated that tiger-widows had significantly
higher scores compared to both normal and snake-bite widows
on all stigma clusters and total score. Stigma did not differ
Table 1. Current occupation of the tiger-widows (n = 57).
Current Primary Occupation
N = 57 (%)
TPS/Crab collection
9 (15.8)
TPS and Paddy collection (4)
3 (5.3)
TPS Col and Pig grazing
1 (1.8)
Prawn catching
2 (3.5)
Fuel Wood/Crab collection
1 (1.8)
Fishing/Crab collection
1 (1.8)
[Forest-based living]
17 (30.0)
Day labour
10 (17.5)
Maid servant- town
7 (12.3)
Maid servant- local
4 (7.0)
Agricultural labour
3 (5.2)
Cattle grazing
2 (3.5)
Begging
3 (5.2)
Nil
11 (19.3)
Table 2. Difference in stigma scores among widow groups.
Stigma Clusters
Tiger
Widow (n = 49)
Mean (SD)
Normal
Widow (n = 21)
Mean (SD)
Snake-bite
widow (n = 18)
Mean (SD)
F
p
Self-stigma- Fear
11.16 (3.71)
7.19 (3.04)
8.56 (2.85)
11.25
0.024
Self-stigma- Negative feelings
16.31 (1.89)
10.52 (1.77)
10.39 (2.76)
86.17
0.001
Disclosure
5.86 (3.65)
0.43 (0.92)
0.17 (0.70)
42.61
0.013
Discrimination
17.33 (2.42)
12.38 (3.15)
13.33 (2.05)
34.51
0.036
Community attitudes
10.39 (2.26)
4.76 (2.99)
4.47 (1.84)
62.16
0.014
Spiritual dimension
4.65 (1.39)
0.57 (0.87)
3.39 (0.77)
87.82
0.012
Total score
65.90 (9.85)
35.86 (8.01)
40.06 (7.05)
108.38
0.001
12
significantly between normal widows and snake-bite widows,
except for the spiritual dimension score where snake-bite widows had significantly higher scores.
Current mental health. The mental health condition of
the 54 widows showed that 24 (44.4%) were suffering from a designated mental illnesses, of which most were major depressive
disorders (MDD) including recurrent MDD (14.8%), dysthymic disorder (11.1%), and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD) (5.5%). In all, 11 (45.8%) widows who had been
diagnosed with a mental illness agreed to receive treatment.
Funding for appropriate initial treatment was consequently
given from the research fund. Table 3 shows the diagnostic
Table 3. Mental health problems of the tiger-widows (n = 54).
Sl.
No
Age
(yrs)
Mental health condition
(DSM IV Code)
Remarks/Husband’s forest activity during tiger attack
1*
53
Major depressive disorder (296.2x3)
Husband was a Boulay. Wood cutting, Illegal trip.
2*
39
Husband was a day labor, but started wood cutting for income and in the 3rd
trip killed, illegal trip.
3*
55
2-days fishing trip, on the first day killed, legal trip.
4*
38
Major depressive disorder due to general
medical condition (296.3x2)
High blood pressure, arthritis, peripheral neuropathy, back pain,
gastrointestinal problems. Wood cutting, illegal trip.
5*
44
Recurrent major depressive disorder (296.3x3)
Younger son has schizophrenia. Prawn fishing for a day, illegal trip.
6*
42
One son is deaf and dumb from birth. Fishing, legal trip.
7*
44
Elder brother, a Boulay, was in the team. Honey collection, legal trip.
8*
27
Dysthymic disorder (300.4)
Accidental homicidal death during fight with the attacking tiger. Fuel Wood
cutting, Illegal trip.
9*
41
Husband survived first tiger attack 3 yrs ago. Wood cutting, legal trip. Janata
money forfeited.
10
51
One daughter committed suicide by hanging (Dowry torture). Wood cutting,
illegal trip.
11*
53
H/o Major Depressive Disorder and self-harm attempt by hanging, driven out
from family by in-laws. Received Rs. 12,000- purchased homestead land which
was washed away by embankment rupture during a Bhara Kotal (cyclonic high
tide). Crab collection, legal trip.
12
48
Infertility, social stigma. Fishing, legal trip.
13
54
One daughter committed suicide by pesticide ingestion (same day). High guilt
and OCD symptoms (cleaning and washing). Wood cutting, illegal trip.
14*
44
Recurrent major depressive disorder with
chronic PTSD (296.3x2/309.81)
Fear of jungle, avoids any forest or river-based activity.
Fishing, legal trip.
15
56
Chronic PTSD (309.81)
Flashbacks of mauled body; avoids any forest activity. TPS collection, illegal trip.
16
42
Chronic PTSD with complicated grief (309.81)
Confronted the tiger attack with husband. Fishing, illegal trip.
17*
56
Chronic PTSD (309.81)
Flashbacks of mauled body; avoids any forest activity. Wood cutting, legal trip.
18
40
Generalized anxiety disorder with chronic
PTSD (300.02/309.81)
High religiosity, H/o Kamote bite during TPS collection in river 6 yrs ago, since
then avoids river and forest activity. Fishing, illegal trip.
19*
32
Generalized anxiety disorder with phobic
symptoms (300.02)
Overprotective toward two young sons, avoids any forest or river-based living
activities. Fuel wood collection, legal trip.
20*
32
Chronic somatoform pain disorder with
psychological factors (307.80)
H/o two severe physical assaults: once sexual molestation by a group of
drunkards and another by a shop keeper on allegation of stealing money.
Wood cutting, illegal trip.
21*
38
Chronic somatoform pain disorder with both
psychological and general medical condition
(307.89)
H/o back trauma due to fall while carrying a paddy bag. Fishing, illegal trip.
22
46
Undifferentiated somatoform disorder (300.81)
H/o dog bite (twice), snake bite. Crab/TPS collection, illegal trip.
23*
38
Prolonged bereavement and grief (V62.82)
Attacked while running away after seeing the tiger, reached almost to the
boat. Fishing, illegal trip.
24*
46
Depressive disorder NOS (311) with prolonged
bereavement and grief (V62.82)
In-house attack (during washing hand after dinner in the courtyard at night).
25
31
Posthumous child
High social Stigma (‘bad name’), child was ridiculed. Wood cutting, illegal trip.
26*
34
Posthumous child
Husband was a Moulay, high social Stigma, child was ridiculed. Honey
collection, legal trip.
Note: *Below poverty line; H/o = history of, Sl No. 25 and 26 were not included or counted under mental illness diagnosis.
13
Chowdhury et al
distribution along with some relevant psychosocial findings
and life events.
Discussion
There are currently 245 million widows in the world, of which
42.4 million are from India, ie, 10% of the India’s female
population.64 The lives of widows can generally be seen to be
an example of gender discrimination; cultural and religious
marginalization; and physical, sexual, and economic abuse
and exploitation. In patriarchal Indian society, they lose their
social and cultural identity with their husband’s death and are
regarded by the family and the community as a burden and
liability. If the husband’s death was sudden and unnatural,
it also conveys social stigma and thus acts as a double-edged
sword in ostracizing the widows, leading them to becoming
social outcasts. The cultural stigma attached to having been
killed by a tiger exacerbates an already difficult situation for
those widowed women. This present study can only speak
about the misery and stigma that these women are suffering.
Their status as tiger-widows impacts on all aspects of their
life, psychological well-being, mental health, physical health,
economic security, and social identity, and it is this that this
study tries to impart at least a sense of.
Psychological impact. Losing one’s spouse is, without
question, among the most tragic of life events. The psychological impact in terms of bereavement and grief, coping with
what has happened, and the extreme feelings of emptiness,
loneliness, and guilt are often gradually normalized by family and social support. Grief, it is well known, has important
emotional, psychological, and physical dimensions,65 whereas
mourning is the varied and diverse social expression of grief,
which can include overt expressions, loud crying, angry outbursts, repetitive uttering about the deceased, etc., all of which
expressions can be immensely beneficial to the one experiencing grief. Bereavement is the objective situation of someone
who has experienced deprivation through the loss of a valued person.66 The nature and extent of grieving, mourning,
and the process of bereavement which will normally follow
the local cultural norms, as well as the beliefs and values and
expectations of the society, are all denied to the tiger-widows
in Sundarban. These processes are blocked and the widows are
inhibited from displaying any normal expressions. Following
are some consequences leading from a death by tiger attack that
have negatively impacted the grief–mourning–bereavement
cycle of some of the tiger-widows who were interviewed:
Suddenness of death. Every forest trip is potentially dangerous but at the same time people expect that their loved one will
return unharmed. Tiger attack is, as they describe an accident. In
a psychological context, it is indeed an accident, for which the
wives were never prepared. The grief reaction following shock
and disbelief from sudden death is more intensified since there
is little or no opportunity to prepare for the loss.67
Stigma of unnatural death due to tiger attack and restriction
on funeral rituals. Death due to tiger attack in this region is
14
regarded as an unnatural death, and this has a deep negative
psychosocial connotation in the community. There is no funeral
ritual that can be observed for these deaths, unlike those
observed for natural death. Instead of cremation, usually the
bodies are buried, and mostly inside the forest. Death rituals and
mortuary practices have age-old cultural traditions involving
moral and religious values that influence both survivors
and community.68 The rituals have a significant psychological impact on the spouse and children and are considered as
important last rites for peace of the soul of the deceased. They
are followed by elaborate ritual purification procedures and
have a specified period of mourning. Psychologically, funeral
rites are performed to show respect to the deceased and to
ensure the departed’s peaceful crossover to the next life (and
are themselves a combination of cultural norms and normal
tenets of faith). They also allow for the social and cultural
catharsis of mourning and grief reactions, which is generally
recognized to assist the bereaved in getting over their loss. The
cultural restrictions in place and the nonperformance of these
funeral rituals not only exacerbates the tiger-widow’s traumatic
bereavement with guilt, shame, and fear, but will also negatively
and emotionally impact any young children as well.
Viewing of severely mutilated body. Not many tiger-widows
will get a chance to see their husband’s body, but those who
do describe it as the most horrific psychological experience.
In all, 13.8% of the widows reported that they had seen the
recovered body of their husband and were struck with extreme
sorrow and terror, as the bodies had been severely mutilated
and covered in blood. In some cases, the head and neck were
half eaten, in others, portions of the body muscle mass were
bitten off, and in other cases, the damage was so extensive that
it was difficult to recognize the victims. This terrible visual
confrontation had evoked a deep and long-lasting psychological impact which presents variously as fear, anxiety, PTSD
flashbacks, and complicated bereavement along with strong
senses of guilt, blame, and misfortune.
Psychological impact of nonrecovery of body. To see the body
of your loved one or be by their side as they are dying is a
very personally sensitive subject and at the same time is the
expected and desired behavior of the spouse or other family
members, as is seen in all cultures of the world. Unfortunately,
most of the tiger-widows in Sundarban have not and will continue not to have this opportunity, as not only were they absent
during the attack but in most cases the bodies were also missing. The serious psychological trauma caused by this, when
combined with the fact that they were unable to perform a
proper funeral ritual for the deceased, has rendered very deep
repentance, guilt, and an emotional scar that remains with
them for many, many years.
Suppressed grief. Most of the illegal forest workers have
dual fears concerning their forest activities, ie, fear of the tiger
and fear of the forest guards. The irony of the matter is that
the occurrence of a tiger attack arouses extreme fear of being
caught by the forest officials, with the consequent litigation
and penalty which would no doubt be imposed. Hence, the
attacks and related injuries are kept secret, and this is another
stress to the victim’s wife. It not only adds another quantum
of anxiety and suspiciousness but also complicates their grief
reactions. It virtually blocks their productive bereavement69
by preventing the inflow of social or community support at
the point of crisis. This suppressed grief reaction is probably
one of the reasons as to why the widows of illegal forest
workers scored high on the disclosure cluster of Stigma scale
in comparison to ‘legal’ intruders: 8.38 ± 1.10 versus 1.12 ±
1.11. Many said they could not cry loudly because others may
come to know of the accident and may then inform the forest
guards. Many widows even continued to be dressed as if they
were still married, for weeks or months afterward because of
the fear of being found. For the widows involved, these were
extreme forms of psychological torture and were accompanied
by heightened fear and anxiety. As one widow said: “I cried
quietly within my cottage, felt extremely scared that forest
guard will appear now and arrest me…. Even though I was
widow I had to behave like a married women. It is not only
wrong but a great sin. I had no other way out as he went in
Black”. A tragic example of bereavement overload uncovered by
this study was the case where one of the daughters of a tiger
victim committed suicide by ingesting pesticides upon learning of her father’s death (on the same day).
Mental health. Women in Sundarban have a very poor
quality of life with multiple psychosocial stressors and hardships.70 They are poorly educated and have very limited access
to resources and services. Early marriage through the dowry
system (the age of female marriage is as low as 14 years with
the first child then born at 16 years) is still common, and
the overall male domination in society is often characterized by the husband’s frequent harmful use of alcohol71,72 and
domestic violence.73 This results in the local women dealing
with unusually high levels of stress, and this is reflected in
the high number of deliberate self-harmers we see among
the young wives.74,75 It is also reported that women in Sundarban are suffering from a disproportionate number of
mental illnesses, notably depression, when compared to the
national averages.76,77
The present study highlighted a high proportion of mental illness among the tiger-widows with a variety of adverse life
events. In all, 44% of the tiger-widows in this study (n = 54)
were suffering from designated mental illnesses like major
depressive disorder, dysthymia, recurrent MDD, PTSD, and
generalized anxiety disorder. It seems from the history of their
lives, these conditions are closely related with their husbands’
deaths, along with the consequent psychosocial and economic
stress of widowhood. The enduring social stigma surrounding tiger killing haunts them over a long period of time and
has impacted negatively and widely on their well-being, it
affects child rearing, the marriage negotiations of daughters,
and the physical security of themselves and their children.
Analysis of attack-related events has shown some cultural
vulnerability issues to be present as well, for example, in the
case of one widow whose husband had been a Boulay and in
another the victim’s elder brother was a Boulay, who was also
present in the team. Another widow’s husband had been a
Moulay. Being Boulay or Moulay and to be killed by the tiger
is believed to be not only a great misfortune but also casts a
strong sense of religious sinfulness as they are usually held to
be the spiritual protector from such attacks. One of the widows later discovered that her husband had died not because
of tiger attack but he had received severe head injuries from
a fellow fisherman’s bamboo strike during the fight with the
tiger. She has had to suppress the truth of this homicide for
obvious social reasons and as a result has suffered from chronic
dysthymic mood. Another of the widows, with dysthymia,
has attempted suicide by hanging. One of the widows also
reported confronting the tiger as it attacked her husband and
she has suffered since from complicated grief with chronic and
disabling PTSD syndrome. PTSD symptoms of events like
these will generally involve flashbacks of the mutilated body
of their husband, fearful memories of the day of the event or
the attack scene, and even subsequent avoidance of forest- or
river-based activities.78 Widows who were infertile throughout their marriage or women who subsequently gave birth
to a posthumous child (which happened in the case of two
of the widows) experienced chronic dysthymia and enduring
social stigma as a result. Infertility is culturally considered to
be a curse and childless women are severely ostracized in the
community. They are locally called banja (a discourteous slang
term) and are considered as inauspicious and are consequently
not invited to weddings or community gatherings. They are
also forbidden to touch or cuddle young kids of others.
Physical health. Physical health is, as we know well,
strongly associated with proper nutrition and health care.
Unfortunately the access to either was severely limited for our
tiger-widows because of the extreme economic hardship and
poverty. Those who had children to raise, often offered the
major portion of the food to their children, keeping themselves either starved or semistarved. While formal physical health checks were not included as a part of this study,
it was quite apparent that many widows were suffering from
poor nutrition, gastrointestinal problems, and osteoarthritis
(mostly back and knee joints), and a few also presented with
hypertension, cataracts, skin diseases, and neurological (hearing, visual, or sensory) disabilities. During the survey period,
one of the widows died from a combination of medical and
neurological pathology. Sadly, acute poverty, chronic undernutrition, and social neglect are the usual contributory factors
to disability and death among the widows of India. One study
shows, unsurprisingly, that mortality rates in India are 85%
higher for widows when compared to married women.79
Physical abuse. There was also ample evidence of physical abuse to the tiger-widows. Several of them were physically
beaten by their in-laws, particularly by the mother-in-law
(17%–31.5%) and some by neighbors (6%–11.1%) over some
15
Chowdhury et al
domestic disputes. Four widows had been beaten by their
own son and daughter-in-law and one at a place of employment. Two widows were driven out from their home as well.
One widow said: “If my husband were alive, no one in this
area would have dared to raise their hand to me. My husband
would have killed them, if they did. But now I have no one to
protect me”. Loss of a husband means loss of social protection
too. Another widow lamented: “After his death, one person
from other village came and demanded some money, which
he said my husband borrowed from him. I had no knowledge
of such debt. When I declined to pay, as I had no money, he
ranted abuse and even attacked me. I shouted for help but no
one came to rescue me. He then took away one of my goats by
force. I was so helpless. My husband would never have let this
happen to me”.
Sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is a very private and confidential issue in the Sundarban community. People avoid
discussion of the subject, but it seems that the tiger-widows,
more especially the younger ones, do suffer such humiliation
and insult silently. One widow disclosed that she had received
a proposal from a comparatively wealthier married fisherman
of the village. He had wanted to keep her as his mistress and
promised to pay her some maintenance money. This proposition seemed to her as too humiliating as well as socially
forbidden, so she refused. Another widow, of comparatively
a younger age, was regularly sexually harassed by her brotherin-law, probably at the instigation of her mother in-law. She
had not informed anyone of it because of fear and the potential
social humiliation. For the younger widows, it would seem
that sexual abuse and molestation is not infrequent. There are
also some reports36 that younger women are becoming the victims of trafficking and have been recorded as lost.
Economic impact. The tiger-widows are, quite literally,
a marginal population. Among the 53 widows, over half
(56.3%) were living BPL. In actuality, this means that they
are living in dire poverty. This is, of course, one of the reasons
that in 67.2% families, the husbands were illegal forest workers as they had no money to pay for the registration fees. In
all our cases, the husband was the main earner for the family,
so after their death, these women were thrown into unimaginable poverty. Some of the widows have young children, and
this sudden financial crisis prompted sending the children out
to work to try and ensure the family’s survival. For 86% of
our widows in this study, their in-laws denied any financial
responsibility for the widow or their children. Only 12 (22.7%)
of the widows get some financial help from their own parents.
Among those families of men killed while legally being in the
forest, only a few received any compensation money. Others
were cheated out of their insurance money by some middleman (broker). The tiger-widows, as has been said, are generally
illiterate and unskilled, and so only physical labor and manual
work would be open to these women as earning opportunities.
Unfortunately, in this remote island there are no job opportunities existing. In all, 29.8% of the widows are engaged in
16
some form of forest-based living and others earned a meager amount by TPS collection, cow-dung cake preparation
and selling, cattle or pig grazing, or a day-labor job (paying
Rs. 16–20/day). A few were fortunate to have been employed
as maid-servants in some well-off families (paying Rs. 20–30/
month), especially fortunate when tiger-widows are generally
widely regarded as heavily stigmatized, evil and cursed. Thus,
there are not many people even willing to employ them. It is
not a surprise, therefore, that 5.2% of the widows earn their
livelihood by begging. To put these women’s earnings into perspective; the rate of cattle grazing is Rs. 2 per head of cattle,
one widow has 10 cattle to graze and she earns Rs. 20/month
(1 US$ = Rs. 50 approx.). Only a minority (10.8%) had some
agricultural land, and they somehow survived by engaging in
hard agricultural work.
Stigma and discrimination. Stigma measurement showed
that the tiger-widows are more stigmatized than both normal
and snake-bite widows. Tiger-widows showed significantly
higher stigma scores on all the clusters (fear, negative feelings,
disclosure, discrimination, community attitudes, and spiritual dimension) as well as total scores (65.9 ± 9.8) than from
both normal (35.8 ± 8.0) and snake-bite widows (40.1 ± 7.1)
and this difference was highly significant (P , 0.001). It is
interesting to note that in cases of tiger-widows (in contrast
to other widows including normal widows), a social belief and
superstition relating to tiger attack/killing is operative as a
strong determinant of stigma. The construction of stigma followed a two-fold interdependent process using the backdrop
of local cultural context. The first component is the deep belief
and religio-spiritual faith in the cult of Bonobibi and the Tiger
God and the second is its extension as a behavioral reflection
in the form of the labeling, blaming, and consequent discrimination of tiger-widows by family and the community at large.
Spiritual dimension of tiger attack. The concept of the
forest is a key element in the worldview of the Sundarban
islanders. They believe that badabon (the Mangrove forest) is
a sacred entity – a gift from God, the abode of the Goddess
Bonobibi and the reservoir of their food and woods which are
so vital for their survival. All community life in these remote
disconnected, poverty-stricken islands, including rituals, customs, and psychological make-up, livelihood resources, and
the forest, are interblended into a matrix of ecology, culture,
and spirituality. These interactions have generated a socially
accepted context of myth and supernaturalism that directs
their existential worldview and value system.80 This has helped
to develop an environmental culture where they acknowledge
their destiny with a mix of grace and threat centering around
the dense and mysterious forest and rivers in which they live.
This is a long-standing tradition that has been passed from
generation to generation. Symbolically, the forest stands
as ecomother; as one woodcutter said in one of the FGD’s:
“We live on forest, we should always pay reverence to Ma
(Bonobibi) and the Borothakur (Tiger) in any forest activities; they will definitely keep us safe. There are many instances
when people were saved by her grace from an imminent tiger
attack … tiger simply observed (the woodcutter) like a tame
animal and went away silently. So we always offer prayer and
puja to Bonobibi and Dakkhin Ray not only before entering
forest but also pray daily during our forest activities. If THEY
(high reverence) are pleased then we are safe”. Another Boulay
commented: “forest is our second mother, who provides us our
food, fish, and fire-woods–forest is sacred and respectable and
always cares for us, …it is by the grace of Ma Bonobibi we
are living on her products, if she is pleased, there will be no
danger in the forest as tigers’ are her pets, but if she is angry
she will destroy us”. This claimed psychic interconnectedness
with the forest has developed over the centuries of human
habitation in the region (1770–1773 saw the first efforts to
reclaim forest land in Sundarban, where people put up their
settlements by clearing the deep and dangerous forest),81 and
in time, has evolved into a forest religion where Bonobibi, as
protector, stands as the personification of the forest who offers
security to them.82 This belief is deeply ingrained in their
social and cultural life.83 The cult of Bonobibi and the Tiger
God Dakkhin Ray 84 offer a strong psychological defense and
dependence to overcome the daily struggle with life in the difficult terrain of Sundarban. This ethos and psychic conviction
is well illustrated in the most common prayer of the forest
goers: “Otho otho Ma Bonbibi, tomar namey baralam pa/Amar
ei lokjoner opor je debe gha, tarey tui dhore dhore kha”. [Arise,
O Mother Bonobibi, I step forward in your name/Whoever
tries to harm my people, hunt him down and eat his flesh].85 It
is appropriate to mention here that Islam and Cheunpagdee86
depicted a similar pattern of cultural beliefs and psychic
dependence on Bonobibi to mitigate the fear and risk related
to tiger attacks from their ethnographic study in Bangladesh
Sundarban fishing communities.
So any such tiger attacks tend to be perceived as threats to
their religious devotion and faith because the attack is regarded
as a sign that the Goddess is displeased, even enraged with the
victim and denies protection from the tigers. Such attacks are
then considered to be a Divine Curse cast upon them. This faith
further generates two stigma layers: First, the widows (or the
survived victim) suffer a sense of guilt and sinfulness which
impacts on their posttrauma psychology immensely (internalized stigma). Second, the community, as a result of the commonly held faith, brands tiger-widows as cursed family (enacted
stigma) and thus avoids and isolates them (social distance) as a
result of the fear of the magical/supernatural contamination of
a divine curse to others. This avoidance acts as a safety rule for
the general population’s own spiritual security. Fear of contagion (by look, touch, food, or air) has played a crucial role in
creating stigma for physical and mental diseases, but here the
alleged mode of contamination from a baghe-khaowa (killed by
tiger) or baghe-dhora (caught by tiger) family is by supernatural
means. This negative cultural interpretation with its superstitious overtone acts as a magnifier for the compounded stigma
burden when added to their already precarious status as widows (Fig. 9). As an extension of this belief, and as a result of
the illiteracy and superstition, many natural and normal forest
or community incidents or events act as a cultural reinforcer to
this belief of divine disgrace (Fig. 10), which in turn, of course,
Compounded stigma
Stigma of widowhood – overall cultural stigma
• Stigma of tiger killing-local cultural believes
Belief in ‘Cursed family’/spiritual or religious transgression
• Superstitions of influence and infectivity of devine disgrace
Wrath of Bonobibi and tiger god (denial of forest protection)/
reinforced by anecdotal family or forest incidents
Spiritual/moral sense of contamination with fear of ill-fate or
potential tiger attack or infirmity or any misfortune
• Stigma of tiger widows: discrimination and community rejection
Figure 9. Superimposition of stigma of widowhood and stigma of tiger-killing.
17
Chowdhury et al
Cultural reinforcers:
1
Eco-landscape:
unprotected shelter, always
vulnerable to climatic and
animal insults
2
3
Livelihood measures: constant
threat of animal attacks in any
forest or river exploration
Deep faith and dependence on
Boulay or Moulay as the only
available and effective protection
strategy
7
* Illiteracy
* Poverty
Religiosity: firm conviction
of protection from Bonobibi
and Tiger God
4
5
6
Spirituality: devine
disgrace will ruin them and
their family- either killed by
tiger or through deformity,
disability or diseases
Forest incidents: escaped
imminent tiger attack or
repeated attacks or attacks in
the same family, past encounter,
body not eaten after killing
Family incidents: suicide or DSH, mental illness or any
accidents in the same family reinforce ‘Curse’ potential
Figure 10. Interactions of cultural reinforcers of stigma related to tiger victims.
cumulatively adds to the strength of cultural stigma about
being killed by a tiger.
People in this region are used to interpreting any misfortune or negative incidents (eg, collapse of a mud house, an inundation of flood water, crop failure, nonavailability of sufficient
fish or good fuel wood in a forest trip, facing a thunderstorm
during a forest trip, or the sudden death of livestock, etc.) in
terms of a spiritual or religious explanation, namely, the forest
deity is displeased with the incumbent. Any good or fortunate
incidents (eg, escape from danger either inside the forest or
from natural calamities or good honey or fish harvesting or
birth of a baby boy, etc.) are also interpreted in the same way,
but is seen as due to the grace of Mother Bonobibi, and the
people reciprocate by offering special oblation, puja or prayer,
to thank the deity. It is interesting to note that the strength of
local cultural belief was so deep and binding that despite the
death of their husbands by tiger-attack, and their own suffering as a result of this, none of the widows expressed or made
any negative remarks or derogatory statement about the tigers.
On the contrary, they felt guilty about some sort of probable
transgression (religious or spiritual) which had evoked the
displeasure and resentment of Goddess Bonobibi and precipitated the accident. The same is true about the villagers, as evidenced in the FGDs and general discussion during transect
walking, although some of them had grudges and felt anger
against the forest guards, officers, local brokers, and insurance agencies or boat-licensing authority and used derogatory
remarks when commenting on these; but they, like the tigerwidows, never made a negative comment or remark, or used
18
any slang if referring to tigers. Likewise, it has also been noted
that many honey collectors refuse to wear the rubber mask
on the back of their heads (supplied free of cost by the forest
department and a trick to fool the tigers and deter the attack
from behind) during their forest activity because they considered it a breach of trust with their protector, the Goddess
Bonobibi. These are the unique cultural examples as defined by
Kleinman and Hall-Clifford,87 where they say, very rightly,
that stigma is a social, cultural, and moral process: generating
within the sociocultural environment, it may affect individuals or groups morally and is maintained in the “lived worlds
of the stigmatized ”.
Community and family discrimination. The widespread
negative cultural stigma and social perception of tiger killings
lead to the tiger-widows being labeled as unholy and evil women.
Tiger-widows are also blamed for their husbands’ death by both
family and community, for example, 90% of the widows had
been accused of causing their husband’s death by their family
in-laws, especially by the mothers-in-law, who would call them
swami-khego or husband-eater and viewed them as a sign of misfortune (aw-poya) as well as harbingers of bad luck. This labeling
and blaming, as a result of the cultural stigma, leads not only to
verbal, physical, and psychological abuse for the majority of the
widows but also continues to subjugate them to extreme social
discrimination; physical, emotional, and economic exploitation;
deprivation and humiliation; and often cruelty.88 A similar picture has been reported from the tiger-widows in Bangladesh
Sundarban,89,90 where a tragic narrative from a Bangladeshi
tiger-widow86 states that: “After the death of my husband by a
tiger attack, my miserable life started. I took shelter in my parents’ home with my two kids. Working in a shrimp farm, sorting
shrimps, only gives me 40 BDT (50 US cents) per day. The number of meals per day decreased; quite often I skip my meals to
give some food to my children”. To give these narratives a context,
it is important to know that there are over 10,000 tiger-widows
in Bangladesh.91 Kazim92 has reported the tragic life stories
of social exclusion, neglect, poverty, and pitiable state of 1,000
tiger-widows in the South-Western Sundarban of Bangladesh.
Generally, where widows are already ostracized in Indian
society, death by tiger has added a further momentum in
compounding the stigma. There are an additional set of cultural rules for the tiger-widows, they are to live in isolation,
they are not to have any social discourse with male figures,
they must wear white saris (in contrast to the colored saris
worn by married women), they must wear no ornaments or
bangles, and they are not invited to any marriage or community festival, as they stand as a mark of unholiness and sign of
misfortune. They should not stand in the way of, or be seen by,
any bride or groom on their way to their wedding ceremony.
They should not come into the vicinity of, or close to, any
religious performance or puja (prayer) and are strongly forbidden to touch any related materials or deity, as their touch
will spoil the sanctity of the occasion. The existing cultural
stigma and these enforced rules have resulted in tiger-widows
being shunned from mainstream community life, and indeed,
in some Sundarban blocks tiger-widows are living in a segregated hamlets, locally called Bidhoba Palli (widow hamlet)
(Fig. 11), a name which very frankly reflects their outcast
status and social isolation.85 More unfortunate still is the
impact of this stigma in the minds of their own children and
relatives. One widow with tears in her eyes said: “I took so
much hardship to raise my only son … starved, earn by hard
toll of meen (TPS) collection from river under sun, rain and
storm, cattle grazing in fields…. But when he got a job in the
town and married a girl there, he said that they couldn’t take
me with them because I am the evil person who devoured her
husband (pause and profuse crying) and may caste evil on his
family too. So he disconnected from me completely.” There
are ample examples existing where even the parental family
members distanced themselves from the widow after the accident, especially in order to avoid any financial obligation, and
in some cases they also blamed the widows for their husbands’
death. These cultural stigma not only enforce social isolation
but also impact on their life courses as well. These families
face difficulties in negotiating marriage for girl children, the
dowry demand goes up as it is also believed that a tiger attack
within the family may potentially lead to the development
of mental disorders (in the bride-to-be), a way by which the
stigma applying to the widowed mother can be extended to
Figure 11. Participatory mapping: widow-hamlet (Bidhoba Palli) in Arampur village, Gosaba block.
19
Chowdhury et al
her daughters as well. The stigma attached to the tiger-widow
also acts as a hindrance to them where employment opportunities, such as that of maid servant, are concerned as well.
Similarly, a survivor of a tiger attack, and bearing evidence
of injury scars, will be regarded as a bad omen and evokes a
strong sense of guilt and repentence in the mind of the victim.
Like the tiger-widows, any surviving victims are also expected
to avoid socialising in the community.
Remarriage. Remarriage for widowed women is virtually
impossible in rural India, because of the various social and religious restrictions imposed on them.93 The social custom and
practice for widows in Sundarban does not differ from that
of the broader Indian cultural context; widowhood is seen as
inauspicious, and such women continue to face severe social
hostility and brutality in the name of ‘cultural and religious
norms’.94 Remarriage is not encouraged, and the belief that
tiger-widows are cursed in being responsible for their husband’s
death places some insurmountable obstacles in the way of these
women to do so. In this study, only 8 of the widows (12.3%)
had remarried. Most of the tiger-widows are in their early to
late 30s, and most of them have young children. The existence
of a tiger-widow’s dependent children, when added to the
social stigma of tiger-killings, also further limits the widow’s
opportunities for remarriage. In such a situation, if the widow’s
parents take up the responsibility for the children, then there
is a stronger possibility of the widow to be able to remarry, as
had already happened with two of the widows involved in this
study. There are however, also some widows who are so psychologically attached to their deceased husbands that they cannot
consider replacing this image with another man in their life.
One widow said of her husband: “I was married when I was 9
to him, who was 28 years then. He was really a muscular man,
good looking, one and half-yard wide chest, tall with curly and
dense hairs. He was strong and courageous, went to the forest
alone, even in the midnight. He cared for me. I never saw such
a stout young male ever. I never thought of marrying anyone. I
accepted my misfortune – what Bonobibi punished me – (crying) I accept this punishment.” This is a clear example of sanctification of the deceased95 where the widow has idealized her
former husband to the point where it will make difficult for her
to find a new partner, one who would compare positively with
the idealized image of the deceased.
Sundarban is not a free-mixing society where the widows
have a choice in whether to engage in a new relationship. If
they are young, and have no children, some will try to move
toward one of the nearby towns where they can start their
lives again as a maid servant or as a labourer on a construction
site. However, this move is not easy, and the widow will need
patronage from those in her family to assist with this. Nor is
a move away always a positive experience, as widows are made
to feel that working in towns equates with being a bad woman
who has lost her character. One widow, who worked in a hotel in
nearby Canning town said: “though my heart is tied with this
small cottage in this village but I feel dejected to come here
20
because people are not good, they gossip about my character.
In my bad days there were none to help me, but now they are
criticizing me with a bad name as I am working in the town”.
Children. The tiger-widows experience tremendous economic hardships, under which they have to raise their children. Children will have to discontinue their schooling in the
pursuit of working to support the family (for example, in cattle
grazing or TPS collection or agricultural labor). Children of
tiger-widows are also ridiculed or bullied by their peers; as one
widow said with tears in her eyes, “my son was in primary class
when his father was killed in a fishing trip. He was bullied in
school by other classmates and they jointly ridiculed him by
saying-‘your father was a bad man and a sinner’. He was so
upset and sad that he ultimately refused to go to school”. In
most cases too, both the in-laws and extended families will
deny any financial help to the widow. So it becomes inevitable that the children of tiger victims are forced to drop out of
school and to engage in child labor. They too, also eventually
come to rely on forest exploration for their livelihood, just as
their fathers did. It would be appropriate to mention here how
a young son of a tiger-widow responded to us concerning the
ongoing social discrimination: “We don’t care who keeps on
good terms with us or not. Accidents can happen to anybody,
any time. We are going to the forest next week for honey collection. A search for honey is a search for tiger! Nobody knows
when it will attack. One can see the live tiger footmark in the
mud. It is risky but what is there to do? Who will give me a
job? The forest is the only source of our living. We cannot sit
idle at home to starve. If Ma (Bonobibi) wishes to keep us alive,
we will, otherwise not”. Brave words, however the fate of girl
children is more perilous. Many widows will negotiate their
daughter’s early marriage (as early as the age of 10 or 12 years)
not only to ease the financial burden but also to safeguard their
security. Many of the tiger-widows expressed their great concern regarding the social insecurity, potential abuse, and exploitation of their young daughters.88 It has also been reported that
Sundarban girls are especially vulnerable to being caught up in
being trafficked to other states of India.96 To combat these and
similar childhood tragedies, some proactive NGOs in Bangladesh have started up schools for the children of tiger victims.97
However, the psychological effects of traumatic grief, and the
profound and long-term effects on the young and adolescent
children of the tiger victims, in terms of stress, feelings of insecurity, sensitivity to peer reactions, frightening and traumatic
experience, etc., all remain a very neglected research area and
are in need of being properly addressed with adequate support
and guidance.
Lastly, there are two further important issues of serious
concern that have emerged from this study, and they are the
gender issue and the ecopsychiatric risk perspective of HTC.
Gendered aspect of HTC. Ogra98 has raised a serious
concern about gender issues in relation to HWC and provided a handful of observations arising from her research
in Uttarakhand Forest, India. Reviewing the social science
research on the impact of HWC, she has delineated two
important impacts, namely the visible cost (direct economic
losses) and the hidden cost – ie, uncompensated and largely
psychological or social in nature. She too has cited the evident research gap and the need to examine the gendered aspect
of conflict, or gender issues in relation to wildlife-related
problems. Research has shown that vulnerabilities to
environmental hazards are strongly influenced by local cultural
and socioeconomic factors including both gender and class.99
From the feminist political ecology perspective, gender issues
impose a differential control over resources, while power hierarchies and social structures like class divisions, ethnicity and
man–woman relationships are seen in the context of local culture.98 Gender–environment relationships tend to highlight
specifically the differential effects of HWC borne by men
and women. From her study on Human–Elephant conflict in
Uttaranchal, Ogra has reported that women bear an extraordinary hidden cost as a result of these conflicts which range from
an increased workload, decreased food resources, diminished
physical and psychological well-being, humiliation and molestation or arrest by forest guards, and discontinuation of their
children’s education. All these issues can be seen to be linked
with the local sociocultural and political perspectives of gender discrimination. Naughton-Treves and Treves100 have also,
in their African HWC studies, observed the same gendered
sufferings and termed this as compounding vulnerability, with
its deepest impact on the poorest households, and especially
on widows and the disabled. Historically, men have been represented as the prime stakeholder in any HWC-related impact
and management policy,101 but recent research has shown that
there exists a ‘potential for gender differences in wildliferelated attitudes, perceptions and behavior’ and thus women
should now be counted as an equally important stakeholder
in HWC-related events and decisions.102 In terms of environmental justice and political ecology, Reed and Christie103
have identified this gender inequality as a gender gap, given
the understanding of environmental policy and practice. Studies of forest resource management in South Asia including
India and Nepal have also highlighted the gender differences
in social networks in environmental collective actions104 and
also stressed the usual rule of gender exclusion (of women) in
participatory community institutions.105 It is also interesting
to note that not only tiger-widows are exploited and deprived
of social justice as a part of gendered impact but also the TPS
collectors, who are mainly girls and women, are also exploited
and economically deprived by their male folk (usually their
husbands, who take the money earned by their wives and spend
it on paying for alcohol) and the tricky local and corporate
business networks.49,106 The direct cost of HTC is the death of
the principal earning member of the family, and the passing of
the responsibility on to the survivor, ie, his wife, and it is she
who will bear the gendered impact of this HTC; which has
been shown here to include serious and lasting psychological trauma, social discrimination, blame, the cultural stigma
attached to tiger attacks, shortage of food, an increased work
load, and resultant deteriorating physical and mental health.
The gendered impact of HTC does not, however, apply so
well when the one left behind is the husband; it is worthwhile
mentioning that we met, in our catchment villages, 7 widowers
whose wives were killed by a tiger during river/forest-based
livelihood activity, mainly TPS and crab collection (not reported
in this paper). Two of the widowers had since died naturally,
three had remarried, and two were living and working as day
laborers. None of the men were subjected to any cultural stigma
nor do they suffer any social disgrace and subsequent isolation;
indeed, in marked contrast to the experience of widows, widowers have easy access to all social and cultural life on the island. It
was also noted in the FGDs, men (husbands) whose wives have
been killed by tigers are not considered as unholy or cursed, nor
are they identified as a ‘wife-eater’. Similarly, these men were
not subjected to any prohibitive social code of conduct, nor
indeed any type of social and cultural restrictions, including the
possibility of remarriage and finding employment. Widowers
are not ostracized and isolated, but instead are living with their
family members peacefully in the community. The differential
burden and multidimensional gendered vulnerability of tigerwidows after HTC as described here opens up the possibilities
of new local research opportunities in the area of social justice,
as well as the need for action, namely development of social
support system with environmental security.107
Ecopsychiatry – human ecology and HTC. Sundarban
offers a unique ecopsychiatric scenario (relationship between
humans and their natural environment) where the ecological specificity of the region affects human lives with resultant
mortality and morbidity. The focus of this study is one of the
central issues experienced by the people in the locale, that of
forest exploration and HTC. Other important issues affecting
the region (which have fallen outside the scope of this paper)
are the environmental impacts of climate change including the
rise in sea level108 and resulting effect on agricultural output
(decreased cropping intensity, crop failures, increase in soil
salinity), and the overuse of pesticides and the consequent
pesticide-related mortality and morbidity,109 as also severe
weather events, coastal erosion, and the subsequent impact
on fisheries,110 all of which have affected not only the ecological landscape of Sundarban but also the life of its inhabitants. More and more farmers are known to be turning to a
forest-based living to earn their livelihoods,111 and the subsequent shrinking of the tiger’s habitat and prey base is leading
to more tigers straying into the paths and habitats of people,
and consequently increased incidents of HTC.112 From an
ecopsychiatric viewpoint, there are two important issues here,
namely, the reduction of human mortality and morbidity and
a suitable tiger conservation program that will help to mitigate
these conflicts. The proximal risk factor is the continued and
dangerous human encroachment into tiger territories in order
to earn a living, both legally and illegally. These livelihood
activities are motivated primarily by the extreme poverty of
21
Chowdhury et al
the people (and the very real absence of any alternative earning option) – the distal risk factor, following the tragic deaths
taking place inside the forest, the affected family is then driven
into deep poverty and suffers sociocultural ostracism. Inskipet
et al.113 has very rightly commented that “Interactions between
the problems experienced by villagers, including HTC, result in a
complex ‘risk web’ which detrimentally affects lives and livelihoods
and ultimately perpetuates poverty levels in the Sundarbans communities”. There are several papers36,86,114–116 that have detailed
the grinding poverty experienced in Sundarban (India and
Bangladesh both) and Al-Mahmood117 has very touchingly
commented on life in the delta as “Racked by poverty, stalked by
tigers, the people of the Sunderbans struggle to survive”. Another
study118 found that poverty is the most dominant factor that
leads to all types of forest resource extraction for subsistence
in Sundarban forest and is the factor most accelerating incidents of HTCs and human death. The important demographic
dynamic shown to be behind poverty in this region is population pressure and the resultant anthropogenic impact, which
not only increases the chance of HTC but is also causing
serious fragmentation of the mangrove ecolandscape in the
tiger’s habitat. We know that approximately 5,000 people are
known to frequent the swamps and waterways in this region
every day. In Bangladesh Sundarban,119 the numbers reach an
estimated 300,000 people, working variously as wood-cutters,
Figure 12. Participatory mapping – HTC by a straying tiger.
22
fishermen, and honey gatherers and Golpatta leaves and grass
collectors. Nor are these numbers static, indeed human pressure on the Sundarban forest can be seen to be rising over the
years.120 A recent report121 shows that in the south-western
fringe of Sundarban (Ramganga and Raidighi range), there
are 22 villages with a population of 103,768 (average 557
persons/km2). Here there is an extreme paucity of any live
lihood opportunities, reflected by the over 60% unemployment
rate, a very low level of irrigation and cropping. The combination of all these socioecological factors is continually pushing more people toward the forest. This extraordinary human
pressure on the forest is resulting in further damage to the
mangrove ecology and tiger habitats; to cite one such example:
“during the fishing trips, the villagers resorted to honey collection on 25% occasions and felling of pasur wood on 35%
occasions. They also extract fuel, dhudul and goran woods
on 20%, 15% and 5% cases respectively”. Islam111 reported
from Bangladesh Sundarban that a recent survey by a wildlife trust found that 80% of 400 people questioned had eaten
deer meat at least once in their life, indicative of the fact that
secret hunting in the mangroves is another potential cause in
the reduction of the tigers’ access to their normal prey; and
the present authors also evidenced secret sale of deer meat in
Dayapur village. This constant human encroachment (including poachers) and destruction of the forest is the cause of a
changing cultural landscape (human-modified environment)
with a special impact on cultural geomorphology,122 all of
which have increased the risk potential for tiger straying and
increased HTC (Fig. 12). In 2009, 12 incidents of tiger straying were officially recorded in which tigers attacked villagers
or their livestock and 4 people were killed in tiger attacks.123
The human dimension of this population–poverty–livelihood
axis (5) should also be addressed in any conservation plan that
includes the mitigation of HTC in Sundarban.
Ecoidiom of distress. It is interesting to note the ecological context that impacts the lived experience and semantics of
misfortune suffered by individual or families. Tiger attack and
resultant death or disability will make the affected family isolated and stigmatized in the eyes of others and they are then
targeted as a cursed family or baghe-khaowa (killed by tiger) or
baghe-dhora (caught by tiger) family or hamlet, and the widows are referred to as bagh-bidhoba (tiger-widow) and their
isolated living clusters are termed as bidhoba palli – all of which
vocabulary reflects segregation, avoidance, disparagement, metaphors of stigma, and degrading moral overtones. This negative
labeling, with a derogatory stigma-tag, separates them from
the ‘normal’ families, and this is a good example of how an
ecolandscape can influence a cultural barrier and generate an
ecoidiom of stigma. Nations and Gondim124 have reported a
similar ecological context of stigma and discriminatory labeling
of children with respiratory infection and of urban mangrove
dwellers (lowlanders) derided by the highlanders of Northeast
Brazil (“filthy pigs, stuck in the muck” [atolados na lama]), and
termed this an ecoidiom of respiratory distress.
Conclusion
In spite of India’s considerable economic and social progress
since the time of independence, the cultural oppression and
social alienation of widows still remains deeply rooted in society.125 Ostracized by family and society, thousands of widows
in India take refuge, in hope of salvation, in the Widow-Cities to be found in the holy temples of Vrindaban, Mathura,
Hardwar, Banaras, Nabbadweep, etc.126 However, it is still
the case that “Many of the 16,000 widows in Vrindavan have
no choice but to beg in the street”.127 Indeed, the story of
widows all over the globe can be seen to be a miserable tale of
social and cultural injustice128 that severely affects their social
and economic status as well as jeopardizing their sexual,
physical and mental health to an unprecedented degree.129
The United Nations,130 in noting their poor social standing,
has very aptly said that widows are: “Absent in statistics, unnoticed by researchers, neglected by national and local authorities and
mostly overlooked by civil society organizations – the situation of
widows is, in effect, invisible.” To highlight the recognition and
world awareness of the ongoing misery of widows across cultures, the UN declared 23 June of 2011 as the first-ever International Widows’ Day. The time must have therefore come to
proactively initiate, both in the public and private domain,
social reform and collective action with a view to safeguarding property rights, social security, employment, and
livelihoods for widows131 and also to frame and implement
stringent legal and punitive measures to bring to an end all
forms of atrocities, abuse, and exploitation of the widows.132
The Tiger-widows of Sundarban should also be protected from
Psychological
Complicated grief and
bereavement/debarred mortuary
rights/security threat/depression/
hopelessness/helplessness/
loneliness/anxiety/guilt: Mental
health morbidity and mortality
(suicide)
Physical
Abuse, torture and neglect/
poor nutrition and deprivation/
lack of health care/hard
physical labour for
earning/physical disease,
disability and deformities
Impact of Tiger-Widowhood: lifelong
struggle for undignified survival
Economic: Lost family
earning/extreme poverty/lost
social security/responsibility
of children and family
maintenance/no land or
assets/debts
Social: Lost social identity/
social stigma and discrimination/
conflict with in-laws –
accusation and blame/
obstructed remarriage/
community outcast/children
discriminated at school
Figure 13. Impacts of tiger-widowhood.
23
Chowdhury et al
social marginalization and receive proper compensation and
social support in order that they too can live with respect and
human dignity. The present study speaks to the multitude of
sufferings of the tiger-widows of the Sundarban. It is a situation that affects all aspects of their lives, and leads most to
lifelong suffering (Fig. 13). They are deprived of all human
dignity of living, discriminated against by their families and
communities, struggle to survive a profound degree of poverty, while all the while living with a multitude of posttraumatic scars and deprivation,133 abuse, and exploitation – all of
which combine in a desperate struggle to survive.43
It is a matter of uncertain speculation as to whether the
problems experienced by the tiger-widows of Sundarban will
attract any attention in a national or indeed, international
forum, even given the context of increasing HTC in recent
years, both in India134 and in Bangladesh135 (6) and the consequent rise in the numbers of tiger-widows in the region.136
Increasing HTC could and should inform local conservation
strategies, having as it does, seriously negative impacts on
both humans137 and tigers.138 Local community involvement,
especially their attitudes, perception and some tolerance to
loss are also important factors to consider in tiger conservation measures.139 From an ecopsychiatric perspective this is
a very serious concern that will need the checks and balances
necessary between two diametrically opposed universes: that
of the conservation of biodiversity, and the well-being of forest dependent population. Treves et al.140 thus very rightly
remind us that “HWC exemplifies a fundamental challenge for
biodiversity conservation: reconciling local concerns for security and
economic growth with international concerns for saving threatened species”. Three key issues are important here: firstly, the
tiger habitat should remain undisturbed by restricting human
intrusion, and this could be managed both by local human
resources11 and wildlife management.141 Secondly, alternative, sustainable economic and social activity regeneration for
the marginal populations142 will be an important key in the
plan to reduce the biotic pressure on the forest143 and should
also seek to address both economic and social security for the
widows and other victims.144 Indeed, from every angle; HTC,
human loss, tiger-widows, tiger conservation and the preservation of biodiversity, we can see that a special program to
create and sustain alternative livelihoods for the Sundarban
islanders is both a crucial and urgent need.145 An amicable,
holistic view would provide a rational path to balance the two
opposite trends, namely, the forest dependence and conservation restrictions, for which, it must be remembered, that in the
long term, sustainable livelihood opportunities for the local
people must be the key issue.146
HTC in Sundarban represents a complex and risky human-
ecological interaction (Fig. 14), truly a confrontation of sociopolitical and biological landscapes.147 So for both human
well-being and tiger conservation, the consideration of local
sociocultural factors148 by multisectorial coordination149 and
stakeholder engagement in participatory decision-making150
24
as well as participatory planning (to consider cost-effective
design, wildlife specificity and selectivity and sociopolitical
acceptability)140 may help to reduce HTCs. The aim should
be: “This so-called ‘human-wildlife conflict’ (HWC) needs
to be addressed to ensure that local people do not unfairly
bear the negative side-effects of conservation, becoming more opposed to it and further jeopardizing the survival of high conservation value (HCV) species”.151 Lastly,
a protracted ecocultural advocacy with active community
participation would help not only to address the gender–
environment issues152 to mitigate the cultural stigma against
the tiger-widows but also to enhance the social acceptability153 of the ecoconservation of Sundarban’s biodiversity.
Though rampant poaching of tigers (for international trade
of tiger products154) and other wild animals in and around
Sundarban forests is also a major cause of concern and is
certainly leading to the loss of biodiversity,155–157 that issue
is outside the scope of this paper. All the steps mentioned
above will need a coordinated, strong, and proactive administrative strategy together with a positive political will and
active community participation.158,159
Limitations. The present study sample was not a random
selection; it was a purposive sample, based on the logistics and
willingness to participate. The Stigma scale though was constructed by observing relevant issues from validated scales and
incorporated local inputs from four FGDs; however, details of
psychometric assessments such as validity and reliability analysis was not conducted. Future research would be needed to
examine these issues further and to explore the clinical utility
of this scale in a study of such a special population. One example, arising indeed from our own research is that although the
snake is a dangerous animal and also having mythical and
folk-culture backgrounds, it is not associated with, nor match,
the cultural stigma level attached to tiger attack. More indepth research data to track conflicts should also be elicited
by interviewing those people who survive tiger attacks (there
are several survivors, mostly male but female also, but who
all sustained injury and resultant deformity or disability and
psychological dysfunction) and that would help to further
understand the unique grammar of the forest (including the
mitigating potentials) against the context of HTCs.160
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the logistic help rendered by Sri
Tushur Kanjilal, Tagor Society for Rural Development,
Rangabelia, Gosaba, and Dr Girin Mondal, Block Medical
Officer, Gosaba BPHC during this study. The authors thank
Dr Satyadev Nagari, Speciality Doctor, Stuart Road Clinic,
Corby, Northamptonshire, UK, and Dr Sushrut Jadhav,
Senior Lecturer, University College of London, UK, for their
critical comments on the draft paper. The authors also thank
Mrs Marina Howes-Wray, Medical Education Administrator, Bedfordshire Mental Health and Wellbeing Service, UK,
for copyediting the draft paper.
Risk factors
Demographic risk
Around the impact
Zone:
Increasing
population
pressure
Decreasing
agricultural land
Social risk
Ecological risk
Grinding Poverty
No alternate
livelihood
options
Dependence on
Forest/Riverbased living
Eco-depletion and
Biodiversity loss
Illiteracy
Geographical
remoteness and
isolation
Climatic risk
Sea-level change/
Coastal erosion
Encroachment of
Tiger habitat
(shark/crocodile
habitat)
Nuclear family
Extreme weather
condition (cyclonic
storm), flooding,
changing seasonal
pattern
Increased Water
salinity
Hard agriculture
Low-cropping
intensity/pest
attacks/crop
failure
Decrease preybase/Tiger
straying
Cultural risk
Cultural belief
about forest and
tiger
Dependence on
Boulay/Moulay as
Protector
Spiritual conviction
on Bonobibi as
Savior
Cultural
interpretation of
Tiger attack
[Poaching (Trade in
tiger parts)]
Human-tiger conflicts
Human dimension (stakeholder issues)
Ecological dimension (conservation issues)
Primary conflict (inside forest): Death/disability
Increased biotic pressure on forest: Destruction of
bio-diversity
Secondary conflict (straying tiger in locality)
Death/disability; livestock looses
One parent loss/lost income of family
Tiger-widows: Poverty/decreased food security/
gender-discrimination and stigma/social
insecurity/physical and mental health morbidity
and mortality (suicides/DSH)/threat of arrest and
fine/compensation issues
Childhood trauma/school dropout/child labour
Survived victims: Mental (Prolonged grief, PTSD
Depression, Anxiety) and Physical health morbidity,
Chronic disability and Loss of working capacity78
Fragmentation of Tiger habitat and Stress
syndrome21 of Tigers
Direct/indirect conflicts- death or disability of
Tiger
Repeated confrontation with human may change
the tiger behavior- humans become easy prey168
Prey-base depletion and Tiger straying169
Wild life threats
Lack of community support for Tiger
conservation and wildlife values
Depletion of eco-resources and imbalance of
mangrove eco-system
Figure 14. Ecopsychiatric risk-web in HTC in Sundarban.
Notes
1.
2.
Mauza: It is an administrative land area in a block of a
district within which there may be one or more villages.
In West Bengal, there is a three-tire Panchayat system
(democratically elected local self-government units): each
mouza is under a separate GP and all the GPs of a block
are under a Panchayat Samity and all the Panchayat
Samities of the district is under Zela-Parishad.
Between 2009–2011, a total of 58 incidents of tiger
straying have been reported in Sundarban, 25% of
3.
which are from Jamespur and Patharpara villages
opposite to the Panchmukhani 2, core area of STR. 12
cases of tiger straying is reported from villages near the
Sajnekhali Sanctuary.161
Poverty Line: The level of expenditure (or income), below
which an individual or a household cannot satisfy a certain
minimum consumption level. Planning Commission of
India, on the basis of the National Sample Survey- 61
round survey data on consumer expenditure published
state specific poverty line – for West Bengal it is Rs. 382.82
25
Chowdhury et al
4.
5.
6.
(nearly US$ 8) for the rural and Rs.439.42 (about US$ 9)
for the urban areas, per capita per month.162
Paddy collection: After harvesting of the paddy crops from
the field some paddies are lost by falling into the field and
these were collected and sold in grocery shops. Usually
one can collect 1–2 Kg a day and 1 Kg will fetch Rs.5.
One important demographic input to population pressure and poverty cycle is the internal displacement and
migration of people from inside and outside of Sundarban. The cause for internal displacement is the recurrent massive effects of climate change being reflected
in heavy rain and storm, tidal surge, extensive flood,
land erosion, total destruction of property and livestock and thus a large group of affected Sundarban
dwellers lost their land and livelihood and shift from
one island to another island in search for food, shelter and living and forest is the only available resource
which they can extract without any hindrance.163 For
the same ecosocial reason, people from Bangladesh
(climate refugee) also illegally migrating through the
porous border.164 This climate induced migration from
Bangladesh to India and consequent environmental
pressure on the fragile ecology of Sundarban is an
international concern.165,166
According to Bangladesh Forest Department data: 26 tigers
were killed by man and 338 human were killed by tigers during 2000–2014(Aug.) in Bangladesh Sundarban.167
Explanatory Notes for Participatory Maps
Figure 5. Drawn by a GP member. It shows the distribution of three tidal rivers around the SRF buffer zone; ecolandscape of the community with mud and brick roads (BR);
Solar light stand to keep tigers away at night (given by Forest Department); the local market; Jety ghat with country
boats for crossing Gomor and Sajina rivers; Crab-hook lines
(Thopa) and TPS collection activity and Fishermen cottages
(FC) along the Gomor and Sajina river banks; Forest office
at Sajenakhali Tourist Lodge with watch tower within high
iron fencing boundary; severe embankment ruptures (black
shaded areas with years); tiger straying in different years (long
red arrows towards the community); entrance paths to the SRF
(short black arrows inside the forest); a marked hamlet with
repeated tiger straying incidents (Baghedhora Para); wire mesh
barriers on the forest at river bank to prevent tiger crossing;
Widow hamlet (Bidhoba Pally) and an accidental discovery of a
camouflaged straying Tigress with two cubs inside the ripped
yellow paddy field during 2001 winter in Jamespur; Cottages
of 3 Boulays and local health care providers (3 Sarpa Baidyas
and 2 Ojhas) and two Bonobibi Thans (shrines) - one inside
the SRF.
Figure 11. Drawn by a NGO member: Widow-hamlet
(Bidhoba Palli) in Arampur village, Gosaba Block showing the
segregated location of the widow hamlet at the corner of the
mouza on the river bank. Normal widows are also living with the
26
tiger-widows in the same hamlet. Among the 12 tiger-widows,
husband of two widows were not killed by tigers but died from
thunder-storm during fishing in the river within SRF. Husband
of one normal widow committed suicide by hanging.
Figure 12. Drawn by a Primary School Teacher - HTC
by a straying Tiger (Lahiripur): showing the tiger’s entrance
path from SRF (red arrows) , crossed the Sajina river, took
shelter in cowshed – hiding inside the Lady’s finger (Okra)
garden in the courtyard, victim’s position and time of attack,
return path of the tiger towards the forest; neighbors’ cottages
and their attempt to help the victim (black arrows), received
severe injury and survived after admitting in the Gosaba Block
Primary hospital.
Author Contributions
Conceived and designed the experiments: ANC. Analyzed
the data: ANC, AB, MKB. Wrote the first draft of the
manuscript: ANC. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: AB, RM, MKB. Agree with manuscript results and
conclusions: All authors. Jointly developed the structure and
arguments for the paper: ANC, AB. Made critical revisions
and approved final version: ANC. All authors reviewed and
approved of the final manuscript.
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